Civil disobedience. That may well be Siaya County Senator James Orengo’s middle name. And unbeknown to many, the battle-hardened lawyer has seen it all.
Besides being an indefatigable mobiliser and agitator of people’s rights, Orengo is a brilliant lawyer who articulates his position convincingly and enjoys crucial international connections.”
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Street riots
Over the years, Orengo has been tear-gassed and clobbered senseless in pro-people street riots.
And he has collected so many scars on his body, including a disfigured ring finger of his left hand, which he showed this writer during the interview in his Nairobi law firm offices.
In one of the protests, footage of a helpless Orengo, cornered by a horde of heavily armed anti-riot police officers – was splashed on television screens.
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A defenceless Orengo was clobbered with wooden batons and rubber whips, as he feebly attempted to protect himself with bare hands.
In other scenes, the police unleashed attack dogs on him and in one such memorable picture, the politician tries to fight off the attack by kicking the dog as amused police officers watch the drama from a distance.
Prof Ojiambo, who joined Parliament in 1974 as MP for Funyula, says she knew Orengo as a student leader at the University of Nairobi (UoN), where she was a lecturer.
But Ojiambo first interacted closely with the lawyer as a parliamentary colleague in 1980. Before UoN, the 1951 born Orengo was educated at Ambira Primary School in Siaya.
Varsity days
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Curiously, both Orengo and Ojiambo left the university the same year in 1974. This is the year Orengo graduated and Ojiambo quit as lecturer to vie for a parliamentary seat in Busia County. Same as in his varsity days, Ojiambo says Orengo has remained the same – an activist.
“The Orengo I knew in the 1970s is definitely the same one today – always an agitator for the people’s rights.
His appointment to the Cabinet as Lands minister, in the last Parliament, did not change this fact either.
He is the kind of politician, even as President, can lead a protest against his own Government because he just doesn’t have a good hold on a steering wheel,” observes Ojiambo, Kenya’s first female assistant minister.
Nonetheless, Ojiambo is impressed by the senator’s resolve and fighting spirit. She says Orengo is an unapologetic go-getter, who is ruthlessly efficient.
She cites instances of the senator’s endless political battles with his brother-in-law, the late Archbishop Stephen Ondiek, for Ugenya parliamentary seat.
“Then a young man, hardly 30-years-old, Orengo did what most of us would dare not. He plunged his family into a vicious contest by wrestling the Ugenya seat from his younger sister’s husband.
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This was quite embarrassing and inconveniencing to the old man (Ondiek),” recalls the former assistant minister.
Constant victor
Indeed, for decades, Ugenya politics was characterised by the battle of the brothers-in-law, as Ondiek and Orengo ruled over the people of the populous constituency in Siaya County.
Orengo was a constant victor, except for one instance when he went against the political wave in the region to vie on a Social Democratic Party in 2002.
Ondiek also served as area MP, when his wife’s brother sought political asylum in Tanzania, to avoid arrest.
Orengo concedes that challenging his brother in-law at the ballot was a most difficult decision: “I was area MP before him and in a way there was a notion among my supporters that I was only taking back what was initially mine.”
The senator further explains that he was part of a wider new political force, the Forum for Restoration of Democracy (Ford), which was sweeping across the country, and could not therefore avoid contesting in Ugenya.
Even more encouraging for him is the fact that Ondiek opted to defend his seat on a Kanu ticket.
Identifying himself as an admirer of Orengo, former Kakamega County Senator Bonny Khalwale observes that his Siaya counterpart has inspired many politicians in Kenya today.
Khalwale says Orengo has consistently fought
